Archive

You may have noticed a couple new tabs across the top of the site. I’ve added a couple new features that I thought I would point out to my readers. I’ve been reluctant to do some of this stuff, but I figure I just need to embrace the whole “living online” thing and share a little more with the world. I’ve done two things – more prominent use of tags and more shared items from outside of the blog.

First up, Tags. You may have noticed the tags listed at the end of articles, but now I’ve added a small tag cloud to the right-hand sidebar. I’ve also added a dedicated tag page, which is available from the tabs across the top of the page. Currently the tag page shows both the full tag cloud (sorted alphabetically) and a “long tail” bar chart (sorted by frequency of use).

I’ve also done more to share items with readers and visitors. I’ve added the most recent articles from my “shared items” RSS feed to the left sidebar. This is done with Google Reader and a widget that Google provided. But really, I’ve focused on creating a new “shared” tab that highlights a number of aspects of my online life. There are a couple main features. I’ve tried to sort the page by putting the most transient information at the top and the longest lasting stuff at the bottom. So at the top, you’ll find what I’m currently reading from various RSS feeds that day. Below that is a summary of recent bookmarks I’ve posted to my del.icio.us account. Then we get to my personal library of books, and finally music, movies, and TV shows. The Listal portfolios don’t seem to work perfectly (they aren’t complete) but they still look cool so I’ve decided to leave the flash widgets in place rather than going with the (boring) text rolls.

I hope that you’ll find the more prominent use of tags useful and the shared items interesting. If you have other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.